I'm going to read them

Gunter Grass

THE LAUREATE: Gunter Grass was born in 1927 in Danzig/Gdansk. Eh, Wikipedia link to follow. He’s a cool guy, though.

WHAT I’M READING: The Tin Drum
REVIEW: The Tin Drum is awesome. Oskar Matzerath, the main character and thoroughly unreliable narrator, refuses to grow up. He lives until he’s 19 in the body of a 3 year old, who goes around playing on a tin drum. Little motifs follow Oskar through the course of the novel: the most important, “you’d better start running, the Black Cook is coming” is clearly a metaphor for Germany’s role in world affairs: crime has a way of being found out. I know I’m not doing justice to this book; it is dense with metaphor and symbols.

RECOMMENDED: Absolutely. I think part of my birthday present to myself will be a used book store run where I get as much of Gunter Grass’ body of work as I can find.